A Study of 16th-Century Western Books

on Korea:
The Birth of an Image*
Cheong Sung-hwa & Lee Kihan

I. Introduction
Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum orbis terrarum, one of the most definitive world maps of the sixteenth century, positioned the Far East at
the right uppermost corner, the most distant region from the Iberian
Peninsula.1 This was indicative of how little medieval Europe under-

* The original was published in the Korean Historical Review in June 1999. This is a
revised version of the original.
Cheong Sung-hwa (Chng, Sng-hwa) is Professor of History at Myongji University,
Seoul. He received a doctorate in History from University of Iowa in 1988. He has published many books and articles, including The Politics of Anti-Japanese Sentiment in
Korea: Japanese-South Korean Relations Under American Occupation , 1945-1992
(Greenwood Press, 1992) and William E. Griffis: the American Image Maker on
Korea. He is currently working on a book concerning Korean images appearing in
Western books published before 1950.
Lee Kihan (Yi, Ki-han) is currently Professor of English language & literature at
Myongji University. He earned his doctorate in Asian-American literature at the University of Connecticut in 1990.
1. Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, reprint of the 1570 Antwerp edition
(New York: American Elsevier, 1964), see TYPVS ORBIS TERRARVM between
pages 1-2 and ASIAE NOVA DESCRIPTIO between pages 3-4; in these maps
Japan is correctly drawn in as an island, but the Korean peninsula is not represented; compare with Pieter Planciuss 1594 world atlas, included in the first edition of Jan Huygen van Linschotens The voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten
to the East Indies, from the old English translation of 1598 (1598); consult map of
the Far East that appears in Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965-1993), vol. 2, bk. 3, plate no. 73; in this

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stood about the vast continent that lay to its east. Subsequent European maps of the late sixteenth century demonstrated considerably
more accuracy and detail in their treatment of the Far East, and to a
large measure this development was due to the efforts to discover the
Indias, the spread of Catholicism to the pagan world, and typological innovations. As new sources of information became available
under this backdrop, Europeans began to overcome the limitations of
medieval knowledge of the Far East, replacing it with a more modernistic understanding of the region.
The sixteenth century was not only the period during which Europeans steadily began to amass empirical knowledge about the Far
East, but also the first time since Marco Polos return from his historical travels to China that information on Korea began to disseminate
throughout Europe. Although Korea was mentioned in only a handful
of manuscripts and publications of the time, these efforts nevertheless
lay the foundation for Western literature on Korea up to the nineteenth century. Based on these accounts, the West was able to formulate an image of Korea, even before its ports were officially opened to
foreign trade in the centuries to come. The purpose of this study is to
introduce sixteenth-century European literature on Korea and to
examine how Korea is depicted in these documents. This examination
of sixteenth-century Western literature on Korea will yield valuable
insight into the birth of a national image, which has in recent years
emerged as an important facet of studies in international history. The
authors note that since the primary objective of this study is the introduction of newly discovered literature on Korea, materials will be discussed in the order of their respective dates of publication.
Scholarly research works on the process by which Korea was
introduced to Europe have been few and far-between, although passing references to Korea have been made in bibliographical studies as
well as numerous studies pertaining to maritime records and Jesuit

study the designation Asia refers to India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East;
whereas, the Far East refers to China, Japan, and Korea.

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257

letters. Henri Cordier of France, Armando Cortesao of Portugal, and

C. R. Boxer of England do provide sketchy overviews of how Korea
was first introduced to the Europeans, as part of their research on
medieval records and navigational logs of the sixteenth century. Donald Lachs comparatively recent study provides a comprehensive bibliographical examination of Western literature on Asia, but only post
seventeenth-century works on Korea, such as those by Luis de Guzman, Martino Martini, and Hendrik Hamel, are listed.2
The situation in Korea fared no better. In 1931 and in 1935 Horace
Underwood published the first comprehensive bibliography of old
books on Korea written in Western languages, and in 1963 M. Gompertz introduced a more extensive list, supplementing Underwoods
earlier work. Although these bibliographies are invaluable source of
information on Western literature on Korea, they, nonetheless, leave
much to be desired. For instance, both Underwood and Gompertz list
the letters of Father Gregorio de Cespedes, dated 1593, as the earliest
Western document related to Korea, and both leave out a considerable amount of material on Korea within sixteenth-century European
travel literature and the early Jesuit letters.3

II. Travel Literature of Portugal

The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1493 secured Portugals hegemony in
Asia, giving it a free hand in Christian missionary labours and trade
in the region. In 1498, Vasco da Gama successfully reached the Indi-

2. Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1965-1993).
3. Horace H. Underwood, A Partial Bibliography of Occidental Literature on Korea,
in Transactions of the Korea Branch Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 20 (Seoul, 1931);
The first supplement, in Transactions of the Korea Branch Royal Asiatic Society,
vol. 24 (Seoul, 1935); and M. Gompertz, The First Sections of a Revised and
Annotated Bibliography of Western Literature on Korea from the Earliest Times
Until 1950, in Transactions of the Korea Branch Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 40
(Seoul, 1963), pp. 1-263.

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KOREA JOURNAL / AUTUMN 2000

an port of Calicot, thus spearheading Europes eventual venture into

the Far East. Portuguese merchants and missionaries soon followed,
producing various records on Asia. Portuguese records of the sixteenth century share two significant features: first, insofar as Portugals contact with Asia was limited to India, Malacca, Molucca
Islands, and Southeast Asia, the Portuguese records on Asia provided
little new information on the Far East. Secondly, since the beginning
of the age of discovery, the Portuguese Crown jealously guarded
important information on the spice trade and the Far East, and as a
matter of policy kept these records from the general public. These
records remained in their original transcribed format until they were
ultimately published in recent times. However, even without these
restrictions, these sixteenth-century Portuguese records had very little
to say about Korea and would not have made a significant contribution to the introduction of Korea to Europe.
Along with the problem of the innate scarcity of information on
Korea evident in these records, there is also the interpretive problem
of the Portuguese use of the designation Gores. Since Diogo Lopes
de Sequeiras travel to Malacca in 1509, the Portuguese were known
to have been in frequent contact with the Gores in Southeast Asia, a
fact well documented in records of the time. Although some historians maintain that the Gores were in fact Koreans living on the island
of Ryukyu, the sixteenth-century Portuguese did not realize who the
Gores really were. Consequently sixteenth-century records on the
Gores also made no contribution to the introduction of Korea to
Europe.4
The first Western literature on Asia written during the age of dis-

4. Charles Ralph Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951), pp. 11-13; Jean Denuce, Magellan: La question des
Moluques et la premire circumnavigation du globe, par Jean Denuce (Bruxelles:
Hayez. impr. des Acadmies royales, 1911), p. 164; M. C. Haguenauer, Encore La
Question des Gores, Journal Asiatique (Janvier-Mars 1935): pp. 67-115; (JullietSeptembre 1936): pp. 392-395. Additional information provided in the following:
Boies Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420-1620 (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1955), chap. 4.

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259

covery was Tome Piress Suma Oriental. And Book of Duarte Barbosa
soon followed. Both books were written in Portuguese. Suma Oriental is the first recorded European manuscript in book format that
mentions the Gores, whereas Book of Duarte Barbosa, written in
1518 by the brother-in-law of Magellan, makes a passing reference in
Chapter 126 on the tribute-based diplomatic relationship between
China and its immediate neighbors.5 However, both books were not
published for a long time, remaining in transcript form, and they
actually contributed little to the dissemination of new knowledge
about the Far East at the time. However, they would go on to serve
as a basis for numerous books on the Far East published in the late
sixteenth century. Contemporary Portuguese historians such as Fernao Lopes de Castanheda, Joao de Barros, Damiao de Gois, and
Jeronimo Osorio, used their influence in the royal court to gain
access to such classified materials as Suma Oriental and Book of
Duarte Barbosa, on the basis of which they were able to fomulate the
history of the Portuguese empire in East Asia. Their works on Asia,
which began in 1551 and took approximately 20 years in the making,
focused primarily on India, South East Asia, and the Molucca Islands,
with only intermittent references to China. In particular, Barross
Decades, published in 1552, conceding that the northern shores of
China had yet to be properly charted by the Portuguese navigators,
partitions the entire Asian continent into 9 territories, allocating the
Chinese coast, Ryukyu, and Japan to the ninth territory. Barros, however, makes no mention of Korea. In his third edition of Decades,
published in 1563, Barros provides a more detailed introduction of
5. Tome Pires, The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires, an account of the East, from the
Red Sea to Japan, written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, and the book of
Francisco Rodrigues, rutter of a voyage in the Red Sea, nautical rules, almanack
and maps, written and drawn in the East before 1515, ed. and trans. Armado
Cortesao (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967), p. 128; Duarte Barbosa,
The book of Duarte Barbosa; and account of the countries bordering on the Indian
Ocean and their inhabitants, written by Duarte Barbosa and completed about the
year 1518 A.D., translated from the Portuguese text and edited and annotated by
Mansel Longworth Dames, no. 49 (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Repring, 1967),
pp. 211-216.

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South East Asia, China, Burma, Sumatra, and the Molucca Islands. To
his credit, Barros included in this edition a comprehensive introduction of China, based on information provided by the Chinese, as well
as personal accounts from his Chinese servant. Barros writes at length
about Chinas culture and customs, the names and characteristics of
Chinas 15 main provinces, its main cities, units of measurement,
diplomatic relations with other countries, and also provides a detailed
historical account of the first Portuguese ambassador dispatched to
China, but says nothing about Korea. In contrast, Gois and Osorio
merely cited previously published materials by Castenheda and Barros, and thus failed to contribute any new information on Asia.
In the mid-sixteenth century Chirsitovao Vieyra, Vasco Calvo,
and others who had been incarcerated by the Chinese authorities for
smuggling, provided records on the diplomatic relationship between
China and its neighboring countries, Chinas justice system, and
details about Ryukyu and the 15 provinces.6 In particular, Galeote
Pereira, who was captured by the Chinese for smuggling in March of
1549, only to escape in 1552, provided valuable insight into China.7
His writing, which provided a lengthy explication of Chinas justice
system and its foreign relations, was frequently translated and widely
distributed throughout Europe. It was translated into Italian in
Venice, circa 1565, and into English by Richard Willes in 1577. It was
also subsequently included in the Principal Navigation of Richard
Hakluyt. Based on Pereiras accounts, Gaspat da Cruz published
Tractado in 1569. With nine-tenths of the book specifically devoted
to China, Cruzs book is considered to be the first book on China
published in Europe.8 However, since Cruz was primarily concerned

6. D. Ferguson, Letters from Portuguese Captives in Canton, Written in 1534 and

1536, in The Indian Antiquary, vol. 30 (1901), pp. 467-91; vol. 31 (1902), pp. 53-65.
7. Charles Ralph Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century, being the narratives of
Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, O.P. [and] Fr. Martin de Rada, O.E.S.A.
(1550-1575) (London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1953).
8. Gaspar da Cruz, Tractado em que se cotam muito por esteso as cousas da China
(Evora, 1569); for an English translation of the work consult South China in the
Sixteenth Century.

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with Chinas justice and administrative systems, no mention of Korea

was made.

III. Jesuit Letters

Through the Padroado, Portugal was able to monopolize the Catholic
mission in the Far East in the late sixteenth century, and Father Francisco de Xavier set out to fulfill his lifelong dream of bringing the
Gospel to the pagans in Asia. It is through these Jesuit efforts that
Europeans were able to receive news on Korea in earnest. Reference
to Korea began to appear with some regularity in letters sent home
by Jesuit missionaries working in Japan, and through these letters,
Europeans of the time were able to piece together at least a tentative
description of the culture and geography of Korea. However, there is
some dispute among historians as to the exact time in which Jesuit
priests first began to make references to Korea in their letters.
According to Donald Lach, Luis Frois was the first Jesuit missionary to mention Korea, having written in 1562 that Korea played
an intermediary role in the transmission of Buddhism from China to
Japan; however, this argument must be discarded.9 Jesuit missionaries had the opportunity to hear about Korea even at the initial stages
of their missionary labours in the Far East. Although Xaviers letters
from Asia made no mention of Korea, he first learned of Korea in
December of 1547 from a Japanese named Ajiro in Malacca, where
he prepared for his mission to the Far East.
In addition, two Spanish priests, Cosme de Torres and Juan Fernandez, were informed by Ajiro and two other Japanese who accompanied him that The Japanese also trade with another people, further away than China, to the east, called Corea. From there they

9. Luis Frois, Die Geschichte Japans (1549-1578) von p. Luis Frois, s. j., nach der
Handschrift der Ajudabibliothek in Lissabon Ubersetzt und kommertiert von G.
Schurhammer und E. A. Voretzsch (Leipzig: Verlag der Asia major, 1926), p. 123;
Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, bk. 2, p. 720.

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bring silver and marten skins . . . they bring back cotton fabrics.10
Father Juan Ruiz de Medina, who researches Jesuit documents in
Rome, conjectures that Father Nicolao Lancillotto of Italy, dutifully
reported these encounters in his letter to Rome from Goa, and thus
the first Jesuit news of Korea would have reached Lisbon by July of
1594 and would have certainly found its way to Rome by September
of the same year. It is also feasible that in 1549, Xavier, Torres, and
Fernandez might have heard about Korea from a Chinese captain en
route to Japan. It is also certain that Xaviers party of Jesuit missionaries had access to intermittent news about Korea once they arrived
in Japan in July 1549. Furthermore, Xavier crossed paths with Korean
envoys dispatched to Japan during his sojourn in Hirado in the spring
of 1550, and in Yamaguchi between November of 1550 and September of 1551. If this is true, then the first modern contact on record
between Europeans and Koreans, with the exception of the Gores,
can be attributed to Xavier and his party in 1550.11
What had compelled Jesuit missionaries to make frequent references to Korea in their letters to Rome was, of course, their aspirations to bring the Gospel to the Korean Peninsula. The first attempt
by the Society of Jesus to initiate missionary labours in Korea was in
1566. That year, Torres, then in charge of the mission in Japan with
the departure of Xavier, dispatched Father Gaper Vilela to Korea, and
Father Vilela did indeed initiate attempts to reach Korea. However, in
his letter to Lisbon from Cochin, dated 4 February 1571, Vilela reported that due to the civil war in Japan, he was regretfully unable to
make his trip to Korea at that time.12 Subsequently the Jesuit missionaries in Japan made continuous references to Korea in their official
reports to Rome. Significant among these was Vilelas November 3

10. Juan G. Ruiz de Medina, The Catholic Church in Korea: Its Origins 1566-1784,
trans. John Bridges (Roma: Istituto Storico S.I., 1991), p. 58, ft. 1; Thomas Pirez,
O Japan no seculo XVI, in O Instituto, vols. 53-54 (1906), p. 767.
11. The Catholic Church in Korea, p. 34.
12. G. M. Gompertz, Some Notes on the Earliest Western Contact with Korea, in
Transactions of the Korea Branch Royal Asiatic Society, p. 44; Asia in the Making
of Europe, vol. 1, bk. 2, p. 720.

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report from Goa to Francisco de Borja, General of the Society of Jesus,

in which the following observations on Korea were included:13
According to my information, this kingdom is said to extend as far
as some very high mountains, and beyond them live people of
white race, with whom however they have no dealings on account
of the many dangerous wild animals that live in the mountains. It
may be conjectured that these lands beyond could be Germany.
The Mongols in question are said to be a friendly race.
It will be five years soon since Father Cosme de Torres decided
to send a Father there to see what might be done, and his choice
fell on me. I set out, but met with much fighting on the road,
Japanese battling against other Japanese, which prevented me from
achieving my purpose. I should rather say, for it is very sure, that
God so willed it, since he wished for the fruit which was gathered
afterwards through my staying in Japan. That other treasure awaits
the man who more deserves to win it.
If Fathers were there, great service, I think, might be done for
the Lord. And one can get there easily and with little trouble by the
help of the kings of Japan. I mean with letters [from them], for a
certain king is known there, so that this would suffice to be able to
get into the land, and the Fathers who would go to live there could
be assisted from Japan with whatever was necessary, for every year
Japanese merchants visit the land.
Entry too into China could be secured through the harbour of
this kingdom which is very near to the city called Beijing, where
the king of China lives. And if we go in, great benefits would follow, which will only appear with time.

The Jesuit missionaries indicated that they obtained information on

Korea from Japanese merchants who frequented the shores of Korea.
Information on Korea thus acquired was necessarily limited and
superficial in nature. For instance, in referring to Korea, they retained
the medieval designation of the Kingdom of Corea instead of
Chosun, the official title of the contemporary sovereign state. Fur13. The Catholic Church in Korea, pp. 201-202.

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thermore, in quite erroneous thinking that Korea bordered Germany

to the North, they considered Korea to be a viable route to Europe.
For sixteenth-century Europeans, Korea seemed like the final frontier
that could bring a meaningful closure to the age of discovery. However, they also understood that establishing a Christian mission there
would be a formidable task, a point accentuated by their perception
of Korea as marked by mountainous terrain filled with lions and
tigers and peopled by fierce warriors skilled in archery, spear throwing, and horsemanship.
These initial misgivings about Korea notwithstanding, Vilela
insisted that the Koreans were by and large a friendly people, and
that although their language was different from Chinese or Japanese,
they were able to communicate with one another via a common written language. Vilela maintained that despite the failure of the initial
attempt to reach Korea in 1566, further attempts should be made.
This 3 November 1571 letter provided the most comprehensive reference to Korea to date, and its subsequent inclusion in the Jesuit Cartas, published in Evora in 1598, made a substantial contribution to
the introduction of Korea in Europe. Vilelas ulterior motive was, of
course, to procure permission and support for his plans to establish a
mission in Korea. However, his plans were ultimately rejected on the
grounds that the success of the mission in Japan took priority over all
others, and no missionaries could be spared to be dispatched to
Korea. Furthermore, Vilela had lost his strongest supporter when
Father Torres died in Japan in 1570. By 1572, both Vilela and the
General of the Society of Jesus had passed away, and with them also
died any hope for establishing a Catholic mission in Korea in the
immediate future.
In the late sixteenth century, with the noted increase in the number of Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants who visited Japan, it
was inevitable that some Europeans would find their way into Korea,
albeit more accidentally than intentionally.14 The earliest European

14. C. R. Boxer, Fidalgos in the Far East: 1550-1770 (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1968), p. 39.

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accounts of visitations to Korea were indicative of the prevailing biases about Korea and its people harbored by the Europeans at the time.
The first recorded European sighting of Korea occurred in October
1578. Domingo Monteiro, captain major of a ship owned by Francisco Lobo, had already visited Japan on two previous occasions starting in 1576. He sailed from Macao toward Japan in July of 1578.
Although the exact number of crew and passengers is unknown,
there were at least 14 on board including Father Alfonso Lucena of
Portugual and Father Antonio Prenestino of Italy. Monteiro and his
party left Macao 11 days behind schedule, and the cruise was uneventful for the next 20 days. However, 40 to 50 leagues short of
their destination in Japan, weather began to change for the worse,
and an unexpected typhoon drove the ship off course. Having lost its
rudder, the ship drifted aimlessly on the open waters until it
approached a point on the Korean coast a musket shot away. Monteiro, who had considered Koreans to be barbarous, convened an
emergency meeting, and ultimately determined to die at sea rather
than risk landing on Korean shores. Fortunately for them, they
arrived in Japan without further incident. Three months after this
incident, Prenestino provided the following account in his letter composed in Portuguese and sent to Lisbon on 8 November 578:15
Korea, a barbaric and inhospitable people, desires to have dealings
with no other people. And they say that in the past a Portuguese
junk wished to stop here, but these wicked people took their boat
and all who were in it, and they were lucky to get away without
being burned alive.

As well exemplified in the letters of Vilela and Prenestino, the Jesuit

missionaries and the Portuguese merchants harbored a rather negative
impression of Korea. Prenestinos misfortune off the shores of Korea
was well known among the Jesuit missionaries in Japan at the time. It

15. The Catholic Church in Korea, p. 39.

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was mentioned in Froiss Die Geschichte Japans.16 The account was

also included in Annual Letters published by the Jesuits in 1598, and
widely read throughout Europe at the time. The fact that these letters
were published is in and of itself notable, in view of the Jesuit policy
not to publicize materials that presented a negative view of Asia.
Following 1580, Korea once again received European attention,
as the Jesuits in Japan began to chronicle the war between Japan and
Korea. The bulk of these documents were written by Frois. It is
uncertain at what point the Jesuit priests in Japan first caught on to
the possibility of Japans invasion of Korea. But in any case, they
would certainly have realized this by 1580. In a meeting with Oda
Nobunaga, who was supporting the Jesuit mission in Japan, Frois,
Alessandro Valignano, and Soldo Organtino had the opportunity to
listen to Nobunagas ambitious plans to invade Korea and China. Furthermore in his letter dated 5 November 1582, Frois informed Claudio Aquaviva, General of the Society of Jesus, that Nobunaga was
planning to build then a great armada to go and conquer China and
share out all his territories among his sons.17 Frois went on to state
that although using the war to further the Catholic cause in the
region was not a particularly desirable proposition, the impending
war, however, would most certainly provide the opportunity for the
long-sought evangelism of China and Korea. Since it took some two
years for correspondence to traverse the distance from Nagasaki to
Lisbon, it is likely that the leaders of the Jesuit brotherhood in
Europe would have known of the possibility of war by 1584.
After Nobunagas assassination in 1582, the Jesuit missionaries
were able to hear of Japans plans for the invasion of Korea from
Hideyoshi, who held the title of Kanpaku (Regent). On 4 May 1586,
Jesuit Vice-Provincial Gasper Coelho, Frois and some 30 followers of
the faith gained an audience in Osaka with Hideyoshi, who provided
them with details on the planned invasion. The Jesuits were reported

16. Die Geschichte Japans (1549-1578) von p. Luis Frois, s. j., pp. 504-511.
17. The Catholic Church in Korea, p. 41.

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to have pledged their support to Hideyoshi. 18 Coelho agreed to

Hideyoshis request for two battleships for the invasion of Korea, and
added that if necessary additional support from bases in India could
be made available. For his part Hideyoshi stressed that once China
and Korea were conquered, he would give the Jesuits a free hand in
the evangelism of the region. However, Hideyoshis lip service to the
missionaries proved to be an astute political gesture. In July of 1587,
Hideyoshi, ever mindful of the growing influence of the Catholics in
Japan, decreed the expulsion of Coelho and all the other Jesuit missionaries in Japan on the pretense of national security, although he
was to postpone his own orders in a short time. In any event, Frois,
in his 17 October 1586 letter, dutifully reported back to Europe about
his audience with Hideyoshi, and consequently the Jesuits in Europe
were privy to Japans invasion plans a considerable time before the
actual war in Korea took place.
The May 4 audience has generated a considerable amount of
interest, and controversy, among historians through the years.
Catholic historians maintain that Coelhos promise of military assistance for Japans war effort was motivated by his aspiration to procure Hideyoshis support for the Catholic mission in the region, and
that he honestly did not believe that Hideyoshi would actually carry
out his plans to invade Korea. However, such conjectures lose their
credibility in light of the collective zeal of the Jesuits in establishing a
mission in Korea and of Coelhos personal reputation as someone
willing and able to go to extreme measures for the Catholic cause in
the region. Frois, Coelho, and the other Jesuit missionaries in Japan
knew only too well the enormous opportunity presented by Japans
successful invasion of the Korean peninsula.
This sentiment was also echoed in Valignanos letter to Aquaviva
from Nagasaki, dated 15 February 1592. Valignano was in Japan just
prior to the war as visitor of the Jesuit missions in Asia. Valignano
concluded that Hideyoshis plan to invade Korea was motivated by

18. The Christian Century in Japan, p. 140; and Otis Cary, A History of Christianity in
Japan (New York: F. H. Revell, 1970), pp. 100-101.

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his wish to subdue the civil strife plaguing Japan, also adding that
Hideyoshi might, in the end, prove to be Gods instrument in the evangelism of China and Korea.19 However, it must also be noted that
although the Jesuits did not openly censure Hideyoshi for his war,
they did not trust him either and were uncomfortable with the idea of
reaping the fruits of human violence, albeit for the Catholic cause.
They were merely making the best of a bad situation, so to speak.
The 1592 War between Japan and Korea provided Westerners
with their first opportunity to visit Korea. Under orders of Gomaz, the
Jesuit Vice-Provincial, Cespedes arrived in Korea with a Japanese
monk for the purposes of administering to the Japanese troops. He
stayed there for approximately 18 months, until April or May of 1595,
thus being on record as the first Westerner to visit the Korean peninsula.20 In addition, Cespedes made a brief stopover on the island of
Tsushima, thus becoming the first European to introduce the existence of the island to the West. However, Cespedes failed to make
any significant strides in the introduction of Korea to the West. His
two letters written during his sojourn in Korea were filled with his
personal impressions of the battles and of Koreas severe winter
weather, and he made absolutely no mention of the culture, political
system, and geography of Korea.21
In addition to their periodic letters, the Jesuits also left a variety
of materials on the Far East. Most of these materials were compiled
by Jesuits such as Valignano and Frois, during their missionary
labours in Japan. Based on his visits to Japan on three occasions,
Valignano completed the three volumes of Sumario de las cosas de
Japon in 1577, 1580 and 1583, which later served as the basis for his
Historia; however, the manuscript was not published during the six-

19. Joseph Francis Moran, The Japanese and the Jesuits: Alessandro Valignano in Sixteenth-Century Japan (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 59.
20. Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, bk. 2, p. 721. Guzman erroneously dates Cespedess arrival in Korea as being on 1594.
21. Ralph M. Cory, Some Notes on Father Gregorio de Cespedes, Koreas First European Visitor, in Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,
vol. 27 (Seoul, 1937), pp. 1-55.

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269

teenth century and was not made available except to a selective few
in the Jesuit brotherhood.22 Neither Sumario de las cosas de Japon
nor Historia makes any mention of Korea. Besides this, Giovanni
Pietro Maffei was commissioned by the Pope to write Historiarum
Indicarum in 1588, based on his close study of Valignanos Historia
and on his own encounter with Japanese boys who arrived in Rome
in 1582. Along with Mendozas Historia, Maffeis work is considered
one of the most authoritative studies on the Far East in the sixteenth
century, and it was translated into several languages and widely read
in major cities throughout Europe at the time. Maffeis Historia mainly deals with the Portuguese conquest of Asia and the West Indies
and the accomplishments of the Jesuits in India, and does not offer
much on Japan and China. While Books 6 and 12 are devoted to
China and Japan respectively, there is no mention of Korea anywhere
in the book. This is more than likely due to the fact that one-third of
Historiarum Indicarum is comprised of earlier letters, written
between 1549 and 1574, which make no reference to Korea.23 It is
also worth noting that Maffei relied heavily on Valignanos Historia
and Pintos Travels, neither of which make any reference to Korea.
Other than the Jesuit letters from Japan, the only material that mentions Korea is Froiss Die Geschichte Japans. As previously examined,
Froiss book, written between 1549 and 1578, does make some passing references to Korea; however, it was not until 1926 that it was
finally translated into German and published, and consequently it
made little contribution to the introduction of Korea to Europe in the
sixteenth century.

22. Alessandro Valignano, Sumario de las cosas de Japon (1583), Adiciones del
Sumario de Japon (1592), edited by Jose Luis Alvarez-Taladriz (Tokyo: Sophia
University, 1954); Allesandro Valignano, Historia del principio y progresso de la
Compania de Jesus en las Indias orientales (1542-64), ed. Josef Wicki (Roma: Institutum historicum, S. I., 1944).
23. Giovanni Pietro Maffei, Historiarum indicarum libri XVI (1950). Book 12 begins on
page 520 and ends on page 579. Reference to Nobunaga can be found on pages
558 to 569.

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IV. Jesuit Letter Books

Jesuit letters from Japan provided Europe with its first real glimpse of
Korea. Excerpts from these letters were transcribed and widely distributed among Catholic monasteries in Europe during the sixteenth
century; however, it is important to note that these were not initially
by and large made available to the general public at the time. Somewhat belatedly realizing the enormous propaganda potential of these
letters for promoting public interest in and support of missionary
work in Asia, the Society of Jesus eventually published the letters in
book format. However, these collections of Jesuit letters are problematic in several respects: first and foremost, the Society of Jesus exercised extreme caution in their determination of which letters to make
public. Secondly, determining the Western equivalents for terminologies relating to Asian systems and customs proved to be no easy task,
not only for the original composers of these letters but also for those
assigned to translate them into European languages. Thirdly, the contents of the published versions did not always accord with the original transcripts. The Jesuit letters were originally composed in Portuguese or Spanish and translated into Latin, Italian, French, etc. for
publication, which provided the Jesuit authorities with some editorial
and interpretive leeway. It was not uncommon for the published versions to include details that were not in the original transcripts themselves. To further complicate matters, zealots of the faith who scrutinized the original transcripts regularly edited out portions they
deemed detrimental to the missionary cause, leading many historians
to question the credibility of the published versions of the letters.24
Despite these apparent limitations, however, these collections of
letters published by the Society of Jesus proved to be an effective
medium through which sixteenth-century Europeans could obtain the
latest information on the Far East. The first of these collections of let-

24. To learn more about the history of the Jesuit letters, consult John Correia-Afonso,
Jesuit Letters and Indian History, 1542-1773 (New York: Oxford University Press,
1969).

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271

ters, composed in Italian, was published in 1552 in Rome. The bulk

of the letters in this particular collection were those dispatched from
India. Subsequently the collection of letters from India, originally
written in Portuguese or Spanish, were translated into a number of
languages in Rome, Venice, and scores of other cities in Northern
Europe. By the 1560s public interest in the Indian letters began to
wane and they were eventually superceded by the collection of letters
from Japan. In particular, when Frois was assigned the task of writing annual letters, the Japanese letters began to be set as the model
for all Jesuit letters. Most of the letters from Japan were compiled in
Goa and sent to Coimbra, where they were transcribed and sent to
Rome and to various Jesuit monasteries throughout Europe. The first
collection of Jesuit letters that dealt comprehensively with Japan was
published in Coimbra in Spanish in 1565. In 1570, the Jesuit priests
in Coimbra published some 1,000 copies of the collection of Jesuit
letters in Portuguese and distributed them for free, and in 1575 a
Spanish translation was published in Alcara, Spain. In addition, the
Italian version of the Japanese letters was first published in Rome in
1578. Thereafter, annual supplements of the Japanese letters were
published on a regular basis.
Annual Letters of Japan, which had made a substantial contribution to the introduction of Korea to Europe, was first published in
1593. The first of these to make a reference to Korea was written by
Frois in 1590, and it was translated into Italian and French and published in Rome, Milano, and Paris. The 1591 and 1592 annual letters
in which Korea is featured in earnest were originally written by Frois
in Spanish, but it was translated into Italian, French, and Latin and
published in Rome, Milano, Venice, Douai, among others in 1595 and
1596. Furthermore, a letter written by Father Orantino Bresciano in
1594 and sent to Aquaviva, then General of the Society of Jesus, includes materials on the 1592 War between Japan and Korea, and the
Italian and French versions were published in Milano and Antwerp
respectively in 1597. Most of the materials related to Korea between
1590 and 1594 were written by Frois and translated into most of the
major languages in Europe. Furthermore, English translations of

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these letters were included in Hakluyts 1599 edition of Principal

Navigations and were cited almost in their entirety in Guzmans Historia de la Missiones, published in 1601. This is arguably the most
authoritative study on Korea to date since Marco Polo first used the
term Cauli in reference to Korea. A more extensive examination of
Froiss letters will be provided in the upcoming section on Hakluyt.25
Subsequent letters that included information on Korea continued
to be published in Europe. However, the 1594, 1595, and 1596 installments of the Annual Letters of Japan fail to mention Cespedess visit
to Korea. They provide only passing references to the 1592 War and
to Korean prisoners of war. Therefore, these letters failed to provide
any new information on Korea. Around 1600, yearly installments of
Annual Letters of Japan were finally compiled and published. In
1598, Dom Theotonio de Braganza, Archbishop of Evora and friend
of Valignano, published Jesuit Cartas in two volumes. A compilation
of some 213 letters, this work is widely recognized as the representative publication of Jesuit letters. This collection is of particular interest because it included the early letters of Vilela and Prenestino, segments of which treat Korea.
In 1601, Guzman published Historia de las Missiones in two volumes. In the process of illuminating the history of the Far East mission, Guzman managed to provide some insight on Korea.26 Guzman
spent most of his adult life serving as the rector of the Spanish Seminary, attached to the Society of Jesus, and as head of the Toledo
parish. Although Guzman had never personally set foot in Asia, his
close study of annual letters from Japan and the transcripts of Valignanos Historia enabled him to complete Historia de las Missiones.

25. For the original title of this collection of letters consult Gompertz, Bibliography of
Western Literature on Korea, pp. 7-9, nn. 1-7.
26. Luis de Guzman, Historia de las missiones que han hecho los religiosos de la Compania de Jesus: para predicar el sancto Evangelio en la India oriental y en los
reynos de la China y Japon (Alcala: Gracian, 1601); for information on later editions, consult M. Gompertz, Bibliography of Western Literature on Korea, pp.
10-11, n. 8. The Central Library of Tenri University also published an English edition in 1976.

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273

The writing of Historia de las Missiones, which includes numerous

letters of the 1590s, is fortuitous in the sense that many of the original letters archived in Spain have since been lost.
As stipulated in the title, Guzmans work deals with the missionary works in the West Indies, China and Japan up to 1600. Of the 13
books that comprise the Historia de las Missiones over half are devoted to the mission in Japan. A segment on Korea, some 80 pages in
length, appears in Volume 2, Book 12, Chapters 14 to 37 (pages 497
to 576). Guzman correctly categorizes Korea as a peninsula and
explains that Korea borders China to the North and the Tatars and
the barbarians to the northeast. He states that Korea submits annual tributes to China, is constantly at war with its neighbors, is generally mountainous with great plains stretching up the middle of the
peninsula, and cultivates rice and harvests a large amount of fruits
and honey.
Furthermore, the Koreans roof their dwellings with rice staw, are
light skinned, gentle but strong when they have to be, and are
adverse to all foreign trade, as well as visitations by foreigners. Guzman also adds some reflections on the backgrounds of the 1592 War
between Japan and Korea, the remarkable exploits of Koreas naval
forces, Chinas involvement in the war, and the process through
which the peace agreement was reached. To his credit, Guzman does
record Cespedess visit to Korea in Chapter 27. Curiously enough,
Historia de las Missiones was the only European book published in
the sixteenth and the seventeenth century that makes any reference
to Cespedess visit to Korea.
According to Guzmans account, Cespedes stayed with the
Japanese and their Korean captives during his 18-month long stay in
Korea and took a Korean boy back to Japan with him, in preparation
for the establishment of a Catholic mission in Korea. In Book 13,
Chapter 15, Guzman explains the reasons behind the war between
Japan and Korea and emphasizes Koreas potential as a bridgehead
into China. As we will see in our examination of Hakluyts English
translation of Froiss letters, Guzmans material on Korea is, by and
large, a verbatim recounting of Froiss annual letters to Rome.

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V. Materials from Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands

The Portuguese consistently referred to Korea either as Cauli or Core,
as it was first introduced in Polos Travels. The first European on
record to employ the proper designation Chosun was Father Martin
de Rada of Spain. Due to the influences of Padroado, Spain had been
excluded from trade and missionary labours in Asia, and consequently Spanish historical records related to the Far East were initially few
and far-between. However, as Spain began to exercise its interest in
the Philippines in the latter half of the sixteenth century, Spanish
materials on the Far East began to surface. In April of 1565, Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi landed on Cebu and attacked the neighboring
islands in turn, thus establishing Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. Legazpi was succeeded by Guido de Lavezares upon his death
in 1572. Lavezares vigorously promoted trade and missionary work
in China, and with the assistance of Chinese officials commissioned
by the Chinese court to eradicate pirates who pestered Chinas southern coasts, he was eventually successful in dispatching an envoy to
China.
Martin de Rada, originally of the Augustine order, was a member
of Spains first delegation to China. Based on materials furnished by
the Chinese, Rada completed his Relation in Spanish in 1576, which
he presented to King Phillip II.27 In the latter part of Chapter 10, Rada
explains the tributary system between China and its neighbors in
Northeast Asia, and lists Korea as one of the countries that annually
submits tributes to China. Rada goes on to explain that foreign
envoys to China are required to stay in a designated district in Beijing, thus providing more insight into the tributary system than had
previous works by Polo and Barbosa. However, he demonstrates the
limitation of his knowledge by implying that Chosun and Korea are
two separate countries.28
27. The original title of Radas transcript was Relacion de las cosas de China que propriamente se Ilama Taybin. For the English translation, consult South China in
the Sixteenth Century, p. 303.
28. South China in the Sixteenth Century, p. 303.

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Radas Relation was not published for a long time and remained
in transcribed form; consequently, only a handful of Europeans at the
time had access to its contents. In particular, Bernardino de Escalantes
An Account of the Empire of China (Serville, 1577), the first Spanish
book on China, relied heavily on the published Portuguese works of
Cruz and Barros, and none of the materials related to Korea in Radas
Relation is included in this particular work. Although Rada and
Escalante were both Spaniards who shared a common goal of opening up the Far East for trade and Christianity, they were nevertheless
reluctant to share what they knew with others. Radas manuscripts,
however, played a significant role in the publication of another work
entitled Historia, written by Gonzalez de Mendoza. In 1583, Mendoza
was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII to write a book on China.
Although he had himself never set foot in Asia, he completed Historia
in 1585, relying on information provided in works previously published, such as Cruzs Tractato, Radas Relation, Ramusios Navigationi et Viaggi, the Jesuit letters, and Escalantes An Account of the
Empire of China. Mandozas Historia was frequently translated up to
the late sixteenth century and reached its 30th edition, thus becoming
the most well-known work on China in Europe at the time. However,
since the book focused mainly on southern China, it did little to promote new insight into Korea at the time.
In sixteenth-century Italy, most of the literature on Asia was
being written in Latin and Italian in cities such as Rome and Venice.
Francanzano da Montalboddo edited Columbus and Vespuccis ship
logs made during their voyages to the American continent and published an Italian translation in Venice in 1507. Furthermore, Ludovico
di Varthema recorded his travel experiences to Southeast Asia and
published The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from
1502 to 1508 in Italian in Rome in 1510, and again in 1511 in Latin.
The first Italian book to mention Korea was Navigationi et Viaggi,
edited by Ramusio, considered Europes first modern collection of
maritime travel accounts. Borrowing data from his contemporary
explorers, Ramusio collected and edited various maritime records
available at the time to formulate in Italian a three-volume folio enti-

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tled Navigationi et Viaggi in 1550, 1559 and 1556. Since the latter
two volumes were already completed in 1553, it is safe to assume
that at least the drafts of all three volumes were completed by 1556.29
Navigationi et Viaggi is regarded as the first systematic effort to compile and edit the navigational records of the age of discovery. Ramusio placed particular significance on Spanish and Portuguese efforts
to establish colonies in India and in the New World. Consequently,
volumes 1 and 2 cover materials on Asia and Africa, and volume 3 is
devoted to materials related to the New World. Ramusio also translated the original Latin edition of Polos Travels into Italian and
includes it in volume 2, thus publishing Italys first book to mention
Korea. In addition, Ramusio also compiled, edited and translated
materials from the works of Empoli, da Gama, Tome Pires, Barros,
and Duarte Barbosa, including them in volume 1. However, as
observed earlier, since the publication of Portuguese sources was
under strict supervision of the Portuguese crown, Ramusio was
unable to include any other works that mention Korea, other than
Polos Travels.
In the late sixteenth century, Portugal was the only European
nation to actively trade with the Far East. With the support of the
Vatican, Portugal monopolized the East Asian sea route, in essence
controling all maritime trade with the Far East in key locations such
as Goa, Malacca, Macao, and Nagasaki. However, from the late sixteenth century, with the dramatic shifts in the political landscape of
Europe, more and more countries began to show an interest in Asia.
In 1580, Spains Phillip II annexed Portugal, thus constructing a vast
sea empire stretching as far as Asia and the American continent. The
Portuguese had no recourse but to share with Spain their materials
on the Far East, which they had so jealousy guarded for so long. Furthermore, both Britain and the Netherlands, having belatedly realized
Asias potential as a viable market, expanded their trade with Asia,
and with it information on the Far East, which had previously been

29. George B. Parks, Ramusios Literary History, in Studies in Philology, LII (1955),
p. 148.

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limited to Catholic Europe, was steadily being disseminated throughout Protestant Europe as well.
The individual largely responsible for the success of Dutch trade
in East Asia was Jan Huygen van Linschoten. He was born in 1563 in
the Dutch region of Utrecht. When he was 16, Linschoten left home
to team up with his brothers, who were merchants in Spain. It was
not long afterwards that Linschoten began to harbor dreams of sailing the high seas. When in 1580 the union between Portugal and
Spain made it possible for the Dutch to participate in Portuguese and
Spanish trade in India, Linschoten set off to seek his fortune and
adventure in Asia, arriving in India on 21 September 1583. Linschotens official title was assistant to Vincente de Fonseca, recently
appointed archbishop of Goa. Based on his 5-year experience in Goa,
Linschoten published his Travel Notes in 1595 upon his return to
the Netherlands. The short segment on Korea in Travel Notes is as
follows:30
. . . so stretches the coast from Japan again to the north, recedes
after that inward, northwest ward, to which Coast those from Japan
trade with the Nation which is called Cooray, from which I have
good, comprehensive and true information, as well as from the
navigation to this Country, from the navigators (he calls them
pilots) who investigated the situation there and sailed there.

Although Linschotens above claim is doubtful, Travel Notes is significant in that it was the first book written in Dutch to properly refer to
Korea as Chosun. Linschotens Voyages followed in 1596. The first
edition of Voyages, published in Dutch, details the sea route from
Europe to East Asian India, the Strait of Malacca, the Malay Islands,
and the Chinese Coast. Linschoten himself had never traveled to the
Far East, and the segments on China and Japan were based on materials compiled by Dirck Gerritsz, a fellow countryman who had the
30. Reisgheschrift van de Navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten (1595) (Travel
Document of the Navigations of the Portuguese to the Orient). see In the Wake of
the Portuguese of http://www.henny-savenije.demon.nl/holland3.htm.

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nickname of Chinaman, and books written by Maffei and Mendoza.

Linschoten mentions Korea in the section on Japan. He explains that
while Korea is situated in close proximity to China, with a north
latitude of 34 and 35 degrees, virtually nothing is known about the
country.31
Although reference to Korea is limited to its geographical location, Linschotens book nonetheless played an important role in the
opening of trade between the Netherlands and East Asia. In late sixteenth century, the Dutch sought to reach Asia from the (as yet
uncharted) northern sea route. Linschoten was himself confident that
such a route existed and personally lead the exploration of this region
on two separate occasions, in 1594 and in 1595. Daunted by the failure of the first exploration to discover the northern sea route, the
Dutch decided on the sea route previously established by the Portuguese and dispatched a fleet to India in 1595. Although Linschotens Voyages was published in 1596, his sea chart had already
been published a year earlier, and the Dutch fleet embarked on its
voyage to East Asia relying on Linschotens charts.
The publication of Linschotens Voyages provided a significant
turning point in Europes maritime history, for it was largely due to
the publication of this book that the sea route to India and the Far
East, previously known only to the Portuguese, became available to
all Europeans. Not long after the first edition of Linschotens Voyages
was published, it was translated into several languages. The English
and German edition came out in 1598, the Latin edition came out in
1599 in Frankfurt and Amsterdam, and the French edition was published in 1610. Among these the original Dutch edition and the French
translation reached second edition. Frequently translated and widely
read by Europeans of the time, Linschotens work made a significant
contribution to ushering Protestant Europe into the age of discovery.

31. Jan Huygen van Linschoten edited the 1st volume by Arthur Coke Burnell and the
2nd volume by P. A Tiele, The voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the
East Indies, from the old English translation of 1598 (New York: B. Fanklin, n.d.),
p. 164.

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VI. Principal Navigations

During the early stages of the Tudor dynasty, England was in political
and religious turmoil. Accordingly, most of the publications leading
up to the mid-sixteenth century were related to the Reformation, and
virtually nothing was published on the foreign markets of the Iberian
peninsula. However, from mid-sixteenth century, the climate became
conducive to the publication of new material on Asia, as more and
more merchants, particularly in Plymouth, and intellectuals, in London, argued for the expansion of Englands textile markets abroad.
The person who steered England towards the notion of the maritime
empire was Richard Eden. Eden was a geologist by trade and had
long been a stout advocate of English colonial expansion. In publishing A treatyse of the newe India in 1553, Eden had succeeded in
reviving Englands long held interest in the foreign colonies of Spain
and Portugal. After Edens death, Richard Willes translated and published several foreign texts on Asia such as Varthemas Travels,
Pereiras Chinese accounts, and Maffeis Japanese accounts. In particular, John Frampton translated Marco Polos Travels, and is thus
credited with being the first Englishman to introduce Korea to the
English populace.
The publication of the navigational records initiated by Eden got
on track in earnest through the efforts of Richard Hakluyt. Although
Hakluyts life is well documented, few are aware of Hakluyts contribution to the introduction of Korea to not only England but to all of
Europe as well. In truth Hakluyt was instrumental in introducing to
Protestant Europe the particulars about Korea, including its geography and culture. Hakluyt was an avid collector of Spanish and Portuguese maritime materials and, using Ramusios Navigationi et Viaggi as a model, he published his Principal Navigations in 1589. This
single-volume book mainly dealt with English navigational records.
Therefore, with the exception of the segment on travels to the Middle
East, the first edition of Hakluyts work did not include information
directly related to Asia or Korea.
Hakluyts personal involvement with the East India Company,

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set the stage for Englands maturity into a formidable seafaring world
power. In early 1580, Hakluyt realized that the Far East market could
open up new opportunities for the exportation of Englands wool
products, and he determined that if he were to convince the English
public, he had to educate them first. In the following years, Hakluyt
devoted much of his time and effort to overseeing the translation and
publication of scores of Portuguese and Spanish books on the Far
East. In 1589, Hakluyt sponsored Richard Parks translation and publication of Mendozas Historia. Subsequently in 1595, Hakluyt first
introduced Linschotens Voyages to English publishers and supported
William Phillips English translation of the work from the Dutch original. This particular work provided the English public with the first
detailed geographical information on Korea. In 1601, Hakluyt himself
translated Antonio Galvaos The Discoveries of the World.
In 1598, Hakluyt published the first volume of the second edition
of Principal Navigations. Volume 2 followed in 1599, and volume 3
in 1600. In terms of content, there was such a disparity between the
first and the second edition of Principal Navigations, that for all
means and purposes they are separate books. Despite the disparity in
content, this second edition was the fruit of Hakluyts exceptional
editorial skills and basically copied the format of the first. This edition provided the foundations on which England was to eventually
forge a maritime empire during the succeeding Elizabethan era. Volume 1 deals with materials related to the northeast sea route; volume
2, the southeast route; volume 3, the American continent. In providing a comprehensive overview of the maritime history of Europe during the age of discovery, the second edition of Principal Navigations
was a working geographical dictionary.
The second edition makes two significant references to Korea.
Hakluyt managed to discover the Latin transcript of William of
Rubrucks report to French King Louis IX, which had been lost for
almost three centuries, and he included English translated segments
in volume 1 of the second edition. In reality, Hakluyt had provided
conclusive evidence for future historians that the existence of Korea
was known to Europe even before Marco Polo. Furthermore, Hakluyt

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translated excerpts from 1590-1594 annual Jesuit letters written by

Frois and Bresciano, dispatched to Rome and Lisbon, and included
them in the second edition. As explained earlier, these annual letters
had been translated into various languages throughout Europe
between 1593 and 1597 and had also been included verbatim in Guzmans Historia de las Missiones.
The three letters, referred to as accounts in Hakluyts book,
dealt with Koreas geographical characteristics and with the 1592
War between Japan and Korea. The first of these accounts was basically a translated excerpt from Froiss annual letter of 1590. Frois
mentions that Hideyoshi is to set forth his armies, and to passe to
the land of Coray, which the Portugales call Coria, being divided
from Japan with an arme of the sea.32
Frois points out that while the Portuguese in the past erroneously
categorized Korea as an island country, it is in fact a peninsula lying
merely 20 leagues to the West of Japan and bordering China.
The second account is a compilation of translated excerpts from
Froiss Annual Letters of 1591 and 1592, published in Rome in 1595.
Some 14 typeset pages were devoted to Korea, a considerable amount
at the time, and subsequently served as the basis for Martinis and
de Haldes studies on Korea in the seventeenth century. Here Frois
expounds upon Koreas geography, culture, and political system,
Japans preparations for war, the anticipated effects of the war on
Hideyoshis political influence in Japan, an assessment of Hideyoshis
political stratagem during the whole affair, and personal hopes that
the war would provide the Jesuits with a foothold in Korea and
China.33 Although he refrains from making any direct criticism of
Japan for instigating the war, Frois does mention that a large number

32. Richard Hakluyt, The principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and the discoveries of the English nation, made by sea or ouer-land, to the remote and farthest distant quarters of the earth, at any time within the compasse of these 1600 years
(London: Imprinted by George Bishop, Ralph Newberie, and Robert Barker, 15991600), 3 vols; (Glasgow: J. MacLehose and Sons, 1903-05), 12 vols, reprint of the
2nd edition, 1598-1600, vol. 11, p. 423.
33. Ibid., vol. 11, p. 430.

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of Koreans were captured by the Japanese and utilized in their war

efforts, and that the Koreans were on the side of justice in their struggles against the aggressors. Frois was particularly impressed by the
Korean fleet force and provides a rather lengthy and detailed account
of its exploits during sea battles with the Japanese fleet.
The third account that deals with Korea is a translated excerpt of
the Annual Letters of 1594, published in Milano in 1597. Here Father
Orantino Bresciano lodges a stern criticism of Japan for maintaining a
military presence in Korea in order to gain a upper hand in its negotiations with China. In sum, Hakluyt selected and translated representative Jesuit letters dealing with Korea for his second edition. The
second edition of Hakluyts Principal Navigations was considered the
most ideal model of maritime accounts to be published in Europe and
was widely read among the European intellectuals of the time. And
the accounts on Korea included in the second addition remained
the most authoritative introduction to Korea until the publication of
Hamels book in the mid-seventeenth century.

VII. Conclusion
At the turn of the sixteenth century, what little Europeans knew
about Korea could arguably be summed up in the single sentence on
Korea featured in Polos Travels. By the end of the century, however,
interest in Korea grew, as exemplified in Guzmans Historia de las
Missiones, which allotted some 80 pages on the Hermit Kingdom.
Sixteenth-century Europeans had access to a considerably larger
amount of information and knowledge about Korea than did their
immediate predecessors; however, this information was nevertheless
limited in scope and marred by prevalent biases. One explanation is
that in the sixteenth century, Europeans necessarily saw Korea via
the windows of China and Japan. Most of the Portuguese and Spanish documents on China dealt with Korea in reference to the tributary
relationship between China and its neighboring countries, and this is
the premise on which Europeans of the time understood Korea and

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other Asian countries in the region.

Europes main source of materials on Korea was the Jesuit missionaries in Japan, whose view of Korea was necessarily tainted by
their inherent apprehensions about the unknown kingdom, zeal for
Catholic evangelism, and personal hardships during the military invasion. In effect, the predominantly negative image of Korea that permeated the psyche of Europeans of the time is based on this backdrop. In the absence of copyright laws, these materials were readily
translated and published in the major cities across Europe and served
as the fundamental source on Korea for the Europeans until the publication of Hamels Journal in the late seventeenth century.